


I Don't Break Promises

by Pr1nceMax



Series: Siximpossiblethoughts from Tumblr [1]
Category: Alice In Wonderland - Lewis Carroll, Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Amber AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-23 03:39:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19142806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pr1nceMax/pseuds/Pr1nceMax





	I Don't Break Promises

**Author's Note:**

  * For [varibean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/varibean/gifts).



           He was angry, to say the least, something had happened with his dad, and she knew that. Just like it was always her mother, it was always his dad. The two had that in common it seemed, and as he passed her house, he simply motioned for her to follow him to his lab.

           Alice leaned against the wall in the back of the lab, watching Varian hard at work. Sure, she was mainly just sketching him, and the way his hair fell in his face, the way that his nose scrunched when he snorted at one of his own stupid jokes. And sure, Varian might have been making this a bit more complicated than it needed to be, adding a few extra beakers around to look a bit more impressive in front of Alice. 

           And sure, neither of them actually expected these different combinations to make a difference on the exponentially growing rocks. But that didn’t stop them both from hoping that somewhere in this mess of a lab Varian had managed to recreate in his basement that there were the right combinations of elements and ingredients to hold back these rocks until the princess could help.

           “Come here,” He looks at her, holding out a hand to take hers, leading her over a few large, obtrusive rocks and to the side of his current set up. Rudiger chitters from the floor nearby, curling around their legs. 

           “So, Running away isn’t going to fix the problem,” Varian informs his two lab assistants, bending down and lifting up the raccoon, placing him in Alice’s arms. She happily takes the creature, adjusting her grip on him, her eyes following Varian. “These rocks must be stopped.”

            “Agreed,” Alice nods, seeming to take her current ‘job’ rather seriously, “So, the plan is?”

           “Well, Alice, let’s see.” Varian places a hand to his chin, looking at all the ingredients and drawings the three had collected over the last few days. “What do we know about them? They’re unbreakable–”

           “Completely impenetrable, Can’t go under, and can’t go through them.”

           “Right, and they’re somehow connected to the princess.” Varian looks at Alice, and then at a barrel of paper behind her. Smiling, he goes to grab one from across the table, which Alice quickly stops him. Setting Rudiger down on the table, Alice runs her fingers across the tops of the papers until Varian nods, in which she pulls that one out and hands it to him. “And worst of all, they’re growing at an exponential rate.” Varian lays out the map, tracing the drawn on little rocks the two had found during their adventures, and looking at her. “Within months, they’ll reach the castle.”

           “And within weeks they’ll already be by my house,” Alice points to the small drawing of her house on the map. Varian’s face screws a bit as he too realizes that, and he honestly didn’t want to think of what might happen if they arrived when she was sleeping. 

           Varian takes a deep breath, his hand going to hers, giving it a small squeeze. The two take a second to just realize what exactly they’re dealing with. Rudiger makes another chirping noise, jumping onto Varian’s shoulders.

           “Right,” Varian whispers, seeming to get knocked back into the moment by the raccoon. He grins at Alice and begins to walk over to his other table with the three different alembics, and a few other assorted tools. “We know that physical force has no effect on them,”

           “Not even the vorpal sword,” Alice adds on, and Varian grimaces, remembering that she had bent the blade on one of the rocks as a test.

           “Sorry about that by the way,” He smiles, and she shrugs, dismissing it. “But, but! we have yet to try alchemy.” Alice grins at that statement, clapping her hands together.

           “Do I really get to see you in action then?” Alice asks, and Varian hands her an extra pair of goggles. 

           “Depends, do you think you can handle it?” He teases, before putting on his own. Alice quickly adjusts her hair to accommodate the new addition to her attire.  He flicks on the flame and adds in a few drops of a chemical, which honestly, Alice didn’t even think to ask about. After a few moments, at the end of the line of alembics, there is a purple liquid. He takes a small sample size into a pipette and walks over to the rocks. Alice lifts Rudiger off of his shoulders, carrying him in her arms now. The two both watch from a foot away as Varian drops some of the new chemical mixtures onto the terrifying rocks. And—

           Fire. Purple fire.

           “Whoa!” Varian jumps back, Alice quickly puts Rudiger down on the table behind her. Varian jumps into action, grabbing a heavy cloth from the floor and attempts to smother the flame. 

           “Varian?” Quirin calls from somewhere upstairs, Alice looks to Varian, and both of them can feel the panic of getting in trouble. 

            “Yeah, Dad?” 

           “Everything okay down there?” 

           “Yeah!” Alice calls back, this time “I just knocked over a book!” Quickly, Varian attempts to smother the flames even tighter, and then boom it explodes, because of course, it does. 

           “One of my big-Big books!” Varian tries to add on to her lie, stammering over himself, both of them giving each other a silent glare. Why were they so bad at lying?

           When Quirin didn’t come downstairs, they both let out a sigh of relief, before starting on the next mixture. 

          “You know why he didn’t come down here, right?” Alice giggles, moving Rudiger out of the way, lifting him with her foot, and handing off a few measured out ingredients.

           “Nope, why?” Varian asks, only half paying attention.

           “Because we’re two teenagers, alone in a basement, and he suddenly heard a loud thump.”

           “I-” Varian stops what he’s doing, and looks at the giggling girl, his face turning a bright red. “You’re going to kill me.”

           “Not if you kill me first,” Alice giggled, bending down and lifting up Rudiger, petting him gently.

                                   _________________________

           “Never give up, Rudiger!” Varian says, lifting the creature out of Alice’s arms and placing him on the table. Alice laughs and slightly leans forward to get a better idea of what Varian was doing, this mixture was lime green. Which made Alice uneasy, but then again, Varian was the one who knew far more about this alchemy thing. 

           “So, our last formula didn’t deliver quite the reaction we hoped.” Varian sighs, looking over his shoulder at Alice as he stirs the mixture one last time.

           “You mean, it didn’t deliver anything but a chance to embarrass your dad?” Alice smirks, and Varian gives her a joking glare. She grins at him, gesturing for him to continue to explain his next plan.

           “The important thing,” He clears his throat, continuing on, stepping past Alice, giving a soft kiss on her cheek so she knows he was teasing her. He proceeds to bend over the next rock, smiling as he goes to pour the new mixture. “–is that we got a reaction–” The door opens, not fully, just enough for Quirin to poke his head in, as if expecting there to be something he didn’t want to see.

           “Son, I just wanted too–” Quirin starts, and both Alice and Varian jump. They were focused and now caught in the act of deliberately disobeying orders from his dad. Varian turns around, accidentally spilling the entire green mixture across the rock, Alice who was on the other side of the rock instantly tries to get his attention, without catching Quirin’s and then–

           “I told you two to stay away from those rocks,” Quirin says, looking from Varian to Alice, and just like that Alice felt herself fall out of the man’s good graces. Varian seems to notice where his dad’s eyes went too as well, as he quickly speaks up.

           “I-I know, dad, I know what you said–But!” Varian attempts to keep the man’s attention on him. The last thing he wanted was Alice to get in trouble and not be allowed at her only safe place.

           “Then there should be no misunderstanding,” Quirin scolds, leading Varian away from the rocks. Alice stayed where she was beside the glowing green mixture, looking around, to find something to clean up the mess with. “Now, listen to me, AIi–”

           “No!” Varian says suddenly, actually giving his dad a small push towards the door. “Y-You listen to me, Dad. Our village is dying! You think running away from the problem is going to fix it?” Varian asks, “These rocks aren’t going away!” Alice looks at the two fighting, suddenly feeling unsure what to do. She stands there, watching them, unmoving.

           “I know Varian, but there is more to them than you can possibly imagine!” Quirin sighs, when the mixture seems to seep into the cracks of the rock and begins to bubble, Alice looks around, realizing that she was in the middle of litertal rocks and a hard place. 

           “Then why won’t you tell me? I deserve to know!” Varian’s voice nearly cracks, and Alice didn’t really have a place to go. At the very least, if another fire started, Varian had brought a bucket of water downstairs. Then the rocks were beginning to…grow? Alice tilts her head, silent as she often became when curious, looking at the near crystal-like objects growing in front of her, although they were growing fast it didn’t seem to be–

           “I’m sorry son, you are not ready–” Quirin starts, turning around. The rocks grow exponentially suddenly, her left foot suddenly caught where they had been growing at the base of the rock where she hadn’t seen them, where she hadn’t been paying attention. “Varian!” Quirin goes to move forward, at the same time, Alice thinks quickly–She didn’t know anything about Alchemy, Varian did, if anyone could get her out of this, it was him. It was always him. So, as Quirin goes to grab his son, Alice pushes him forward, and into the older man.

              Both father and son now well out of the way, the rocks suddenly spike double the size in growth. Alice tries to free her leg, but then the Amber catches her hand as well. She looks to Quirin and Varian, her eyes widening in fear. She remembers the map the two had made, and if this was anything like that, she had maybe two minutes, instead of two months.

           “Alice!” Varian yells, quickly scrambling to his feet, Alice tries to move as much as she can, her free hand catching his.

           “Varian,” Alice gasps, grabbing onto him, he begins to look around.

           “D-Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of there, okay? I promise, I’ll–” Varian begins to say, trying to cling to her, as Quirin suddenly drags his son backward.

           “Stay back, before you get caught too,” Quirin’s eyes widen as he looks to Alice, to the girl he had come to love as a daughter. The three all seem to stop, the air around them feels cold, and time seems frozen in space. This was not how anything was supposed to happen.

              “Alice,” Varian whispers, trying to fight against his much stronger father, trying to get to her. She looks at him, clearly scared, with tears pouring down either side of her face.

           “Vari,” Alice whispers back, the Amber suddenly stretching, a piece pressing against her neck, and she inhales sharply. “Help me, please,” A sob, a choking, strangling noise, “Please, help me, Varian, please.”

           “Alice, I’ll do anything to get you out of there.”

           “Promise?”

           “I promise. And I never break my promises.”

The Amber shot up once more, and no more sobs could be heard, except for the ones coming from Varian as he clung to his father.


End file.
